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Lee Jae-myung, lawmaker and leader of the Democratic Party, checks a text message on Sept. 1 from chief advisor Kim Hyeon-ji informing Lee that a summons was delivered for him in regard to development scandals in Seongnam, where he formerly served as mayor. Kim’s text message ends with the line, “This is war.” (pool photo)

Prosecutors have summoned Lee Jae-myung, the new leader of the Democratic Party, to appear for questioning related to an investigation into allegations that Lee spread false information during his time as a presidential candidate. The summons came only four days after Lee started his term as the new leader of the main opposition party on Sunday.

The second public investigation division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, headed by Lee Sang-hyun, announced on Thursday that they had requested Lee, who is being accused of violating the Public Official Election Act, to appear at the prosecutor’s office on Tuesday for questioning.

During his campaign, Lee had said that he “did not know” Kim Moon-ki, the former deputy head of the development division at Seongnam Development Corporation, who was found dead while under investigation on allegations of preferential treatment tied to the Daejang neighborhood development scandal last December. However, one civic group accused Lee of lying about this and filed charges against him.

Prosecutors have also been conducting investigations into allegations of disclosure of false information concerning the Daejang neighborhood development case.

During the upcoming questioning session, the prosecution also intends to investigate allegations that Lee spread falsehoods regarding alleged preferential treatment in connection with the Baekhyeon neighborhood project.

The investigation into the Baekhyeon neighborhood project was transferred by the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency to the Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office on Sunday.

In an unprecedented move, the investigation team of the third criminal division of the Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office, headed by Yoo Min-jong, will be moving to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to continue the investigation into Lee.

Lee clarified his position on the issue back in October last year, when he was still governor of Gyeonggi Province.

In response to allegations of preferential treatment on the alteration of land use zoning for the Korea Food Research Institute in the Baekhyeong neighborhood, while he was still mayor of Seongnam, Lee said during a parliamentary audit that it was the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that requested the zoning change. Lee said at the time that, if he did not comply, he would be accused of not doing his job.

However, the People Power Party decried this statement as being false.

The statute of limitations for the Public Official Election Act is six months, meaning that the statute for crimes committed during this last presidential election on March 9 would be until Sept. 9, which is the start of the Chuseok holiday.

Given the time crunch, it is expected that prosecutors will decide whether to indict Lee after one round of investigation.

“Since we cannot request [Lee] to appear for questioning on multiple occasions, we are trying to investigate both the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office case and the Seongnam branch office case together,” the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office explained.

In other words, the prosecutors are saying they are doing this out of consideration for Lee since the statute of limitation will expire soon.

Lee’s side fiercely protested the summons, however, likening it to a declaration of “war” against him.

“Was [Lee’s] interview remark that he did not know [Kim Moon-ki] was an employee of a Seongnam City affiliated company a false statement of such a degree to warrant a summons?,” Park Sung-joon, spokesperson for the Democratic Party, asked at a briefing.

Park accused President Yoon Suk-yeol’s “republic of prosecutors” of “political retaliation” for legally going after Lee’s political remarks while dismissing numerous charges against Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee.

Meanwhile, the third anti-corruption investigation division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, headed by Kang Baek-sin, conducted search and seizure operations for a second day on companies with links to the Wirye New Town project, another project that was carried out while Lee was mayor of Seongnam.

Another search and seizure related to the Daejang neighborhood project was also reportedly conducted.

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter; Joh Yun-yeong, staff reporter; Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter

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